Kazakhstan: GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Overview: Kazakhstan has been ruled by one person, Nursultan Nazarbayev, since before the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. During that time, governance has been destabilized by the dismissal of several governments, a series of referenda that changed governmental practice, long periods of rule by presidential decree, and the establishment of two new constitutions. These events have concentrated power in the presidency, severely limiting the power of the legislature and the ministries. Nazarbayev has acted to discourage opposition, although some opposition parties exist. Government corruption has been a major issue. In 2004 the corruption index of Transparency International rated Kazakhstan 122 out of 146 countries.

Executive Branch: The president is elected by direct ballot to a five-year term. The constitutions of 1993 and 1995 have given increased powers to the president, and subsequent referenda have made key changes such as the abolition of the two-term limit for that office. Officially, the prime minister, four deputies, and the 16 ministries that compose the government implement policy; the president determines policy. Nazarbayev has dissolved several governments in instances when a prime minister threatened his position as sole policy maker. Between 1992 and 2004, four prime ministers were dismissed or forced to resign. Only the president can introduce constitutional amendments. He or she has the power to appoint and dismiss the government, dissolve parliament, call for referenda, and appoint administrative heads of regions and cities. Major foreign investment and foreign policy issues are handled by the president’s office. The president appoints the members of the Committee for National Security, which plays a major role in law enforcement through its responsibilities for national security, intelligence, and counterintelligence. Nazarbayev, an indecisive administrator whose regime has been plagued by corruption, has survived by balancing competing factions. His daughter and son-in-law have assumed influential positions in politics and the media, respectively. In a case that has been labeled “Kazakhgate,” Nazarbayev has been accused of taking bribes from a U.S. oil executive.

Legislative Branch: In the post-Soviet era, Kazakhstan has had four parliamentary structures. Since 1998 the bicameral parliament has consisted of the 39-seat Senate and the 77-seat Majlis. The president appoints seven senators; the rest of the senators are elected by the local councils of their respective provinces. Senators serve six-year terms; two are elected from each of 14 provinces and the cities of Almaty and Astana. Majlis members serve five-year terms. Ten members are elected from the winning party’s lists, and the remainder are elected to represent the election districts. Legislation normally is introduced and pushed through parliament by the president or government members, although members of parliament also have the right to introduce legislation. The legislature has no power to appropriate state funds or to lower taxes without approval from the executive branch. In the 1999 Majlis elections, only four of 67 successful candidates represented opposition parties. In the September 2004 Majlis elections, Otan (Fatherland), the presidential party, once again won a decisive majority of seats. In 2005 three women had seats in the Senate, and seven women had seats in the Majlis.

Judicial Branch: The highest court in Kazakhstan is the 44-member Supreme Court, whose members are nominated by the president and chosen by the Senate. The Supreme Court is the appeals court for decisions taken at lower (district and province) court levels. Although nominally Supreme Court judges are appointed for life, in fact they retire at the mandatory federal retirement age of 65. Under the 1995 constitution, the Constitutional Court that had been established in 1991 was replaced by the Constitutional Council. The council rules on all constitutional matters, but its decisions are subject to a presidential right of veto. The council is composed of seven members: three appointed by the president and four appointed by the legislature. Citizens have no right of appeal on council decisions.

Administrative Divisions: In 1997 an administrative reform reduced the number of Kazakhstan’s provinces from 19 to 14. The cities of Almaty, Astana, and Baykonur have the same status as provinces. The 1997 reform divided the country into 160 districts and 10 municipal districts.

Provincial and Local Government: The executive officers of the provinces are the administrative heads (akims), who are appointed by the president, who also appoints the chief executives of the districts. At city and district level, the legislative body is the local council (maslikhat), which is directly elected but has only budgetary and tax-raising power. The maslikhats also elect the members of the Senate who represent their districts.

Judicial and Legal System: The system, whose independence is compromised by heavy control by the executive branch, functions at three levels: district, provincial, and federal. Judges at all levels are appointed by the president. Supreme Court and province-level appointments are made through the Supreme Judicial Council, which in turn is composed of ex officio presidential appointees. District-level judges are appointed from lists provided by the Ministry of Justice. Most criminal cases are heard at the district level; provincial courts try cases involving a possible death penalty and serve as appeals courts for decisions at the district level. Provincial court decisions can be appealed to the Supreme Court at the federal level. In 2002 legislation, the prosecutor general, who is the chief legal representative of the state, received new quasi-judicial powers that eroded the already small independence of the judiciary. Although judges are well-paid at all levels, bribery is common. Trial by jury, for which the constitution provides, has not been adopted. Trials are public, and defendants have the right to counsel; however, in 2004 only half of criminal trials involved defense lawyers. Higher-court reversals of verdicts because of improper procedure have been common.

Electoral System: The national election law provides for universal suffrage for citizens aged 18 or older. National elections are overseen by the Central Election Commission, whose members are appointed by the president with the approval of the Majlis. The commission has summarily removed opposition candidates from ballots as recently as the 2002 Senate elections. Opposition candidates also have been bribed and intimidated. International monitors found major procedural flaws in both the Senate elections of 2002 and the Majlis elections of 2004. Local council elections are significant because they provide political parties with a regional base and provide an opening for political pluralism at the local and regional levels. Incidents of harassment and bribery were documented in those elections and in the local council elections of September 2003. The local elections were swept by the pro-presidential party Otan (Fatherland), which ran unopposed in nearly 50 percent of constituencies. Senate elections, which are indirect, are scheduled for December 2005. The next presidential election is scheduled for December 2006 and the next Majlis elections for September 2009.

Political Parties: Political parties have not played an important role in Kazakhstan’s political structure, and the Nazarbayev government has worked to prevent the development of an adversarial system. The election law of 2002 placed strict financial and membership requirements on the registration of political parties, which is under the authority of the Ministry of Justice. The government has used this law to restrict opposition activity; aside from the presidential party, Otan (Fatherland), only nine parties—one of which is chaired by the president’s daughter—were officially recognized in 2004. Three of the 10 parties registered for the parliamentary elections of 2004 called themselves opposition parties, although all three are considered moderate. All of the other seven had strong government ties. The constitution prohibits political parties based on religion. In the 2003 local elections, Otan candidates ran unopposed in more than 50 percent of races. Otan also won a decisive majority in the 2004 Majlis elections, whose procedures were criticized by international monitors. The leaders of two forceful opposition parties, the Republican People’s Party of Kazakhstan (founded in 1999) and the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK, founded in 2001), have been sentenced to prison. The government deprived DVK of its legal status in 2005. Less threatening opposition parties such as the Ak Zhol (White Road) Party have been allowed legal status. In 2005 Ak Zhol split into pro-government and antigovernment parties, the latter of which was denied registration. The For a Fair Kazakhstan bloc, including most of Kazakhstan’s opposition groups, was refused registration in 2005. If able to register, the bloc would run its chairman, Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, against Nazarbayev in the 2006 presidential election.

Mass Media: Although the constitution and the Media Law provide for freedom of speech and the press, by 2002 the government had eliminated or silenced most independent media outlets. The daily newspapers with widest circulation are the Almaty Asia Times (in English), the Almaty Herald (in English), Ekspress-K (in Russian), Kazakhstanskaya Pravda (expressing the official views of the government in Russian, circulation 55,000), Khalyk Kenesi (in Kazakh), Vecherniy Almaty (in Russian), and Yegemen Kazakhstan (expressing the official views of the government in Kazakh, circulation 62,000). The Times of Central Asia covers all of Central Asia except Tajikistan. The weekly Russian-language Karavan, owned by President Nazarbayev’s daughter, has a circulation of about 250,000. A large percentage of broadcast media outlets were privatized in the late 1990s, but most companies are operated by pro-government owners, including Nazarbayev’s daughter and son-in-law. The main television channel, Khabar, reaches 64 million people in Central Asia and parts of China and Russia. Five other national channels, KTK (the commercial channel), NTK, Channel 31, TRK Shakhar, and TAN, are active. The largest national radio stations are Rakhat, Radio Europa-Plus Kazakhstan, Radio Hit, Radio NS, Radio City, Radio-Caravan, and TAN-Plus. Public and private regional television channels and radio stations also exist. The state press agency is the National Information Agency, Kazinform. Major foreign news agencies in Kazakhstan are Agence France-Presse, Anadolu Ajansı of Turkey, the U.S.-based Internews Network, the Islamic Republic News Agency, ITAR-TASS and RIA-Novosti of Russia, Reuters, and Xinhua.

Foreign Relations: In 2005 Kazakhstan continued its largely unsuccessful advocacy of stronger relations among the states of the former Soviet Union and among the five Central Asian states. Despite ongoing efforts by President Nazarbayev, neither of the two existing regional economic organizations—the Central Asian Economic Community and the Eurasian Economic Community—has increased regional cooperation. The only regional rapprochement occurred in the realm of national security, as the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) began issuing geopolitical policy statements as a bloc in 2004. Kazakhstan’s bilateral relations with Russia improved significantly in the early 2000s, and the government declared 2004 the “Year of Russia.” Bilateral programs with Russia involve joint exploitation of Caspian Sea fuel deposits, long-term Russian rental of Kazakhstan’s Baykonur Cosmodrome, and cooperation in power generation. Caspian Sea exploitation remains in dispute with the other three littoral states, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkmenistan. Relations with Uzbekistan have remained tentative because of earlier border disputes and Uzbekistan’s ambitions to dominate the region. Relations with the United States have been fruitful for Kazakhstan, which has benefited from substantial U.S. investment in the fuels industries. In 2001 Kazakhstan provided the United States landing and overflight rights for military operations in Afghanistan. In the early 2000s, Kazakhstan carefully balanced its position among the competing regional interests of China, Russia, and the United States, emphasizing common concerns about terrorism with the United States. In 2003 Kazakhstan supported the U.S. policy in Iraq, contributing a small military contingent to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Membership in International Organizations: Among the international organizations of which Kazakhstan is a member are the Asian Development Bank, Commonwealth of Independent States, Economic Cooperation Organization, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Atomic Energy Agency, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), International Development Association, International Finance Corporation, International Fund for Agricultural Development, International Labour Organization, International Monetary Fund, International Organization for Migration, International Telecommunication Union, Islamic Development Bank, Nuclear Suppliers Group, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Partnership for Peace (of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), Shanghai Cooperation Organization, United Nations, United Nations Committee on Trade and Development, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Universal Postal Union, World Customs Organization, World Federation of Trade Unions, World Health Organization, and World Trade Organization (observer status).

Major International Treaties: Between 1994 and 1997, Kazakhstan signed a series of bilateral treaties with the United States covering the peaceful use of nuclear technology and the conversion of military technology to civilian purposes. Among the multilateral treaties to which Kazakhstan is a signatory are the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal; Convention on Biological Diversity; Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution; Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna; Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling, and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (but not the companion treaty on biological and toxin weapons); Geneva Conventions; Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer; Protocol of 1978 Relating to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution From Ships; Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification; and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Kazakhstan has signed but not ratified the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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